The Australian Open has already reached the decisive stages and tomorrow (Friday, starting at 5:30, live broadcasts on Eurosport) the semi-final stage will be held. In the first game Rafael Nadal will play against Matteo Bartini and then Daniel Medvedev will meet Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Rafael Nadal (6, Spain) – Matteo Bertini (7, Italy), starting at 5:30
The Spaniard is two victories away from being crowned Grand Slam 21 in his career. Rafael Nadal, who won the Australian Championship once (2009), wants to do it again and he will meet the excellent Matteo Bartini, who did not make the quarter-finals in Melbourne until this year but reached the Wimbledon final and quarter-final at Roland Garros and the United States Championship last year. The first time Bartini reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slam was at the 2019 United States Championships, so he lost in three sets to Rafael Nadal, this is also the only meeting held between them so far.
“It’s a big opportunity for me,” said Bartini, who defeated Gal Monfis in five sets in the quarter-finals. “I’ve watched him so many times in this tournament, in other tournaments, and I encouraged him. It’s very difficult, but I’m in the Grand Slam semi-finals for the third time, so that’s my level. ” Bertini is the first Italian ever to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Championship.
Nadal enjoyed two days off between the win against Dennis Shapovalov for the semi-finals and said: “I think it is important to recover in those two days towards another tough battle in the semi-finals. Matteo is one of the best players in the world, very stable and I have to play at my highest level.”
Daniel Medvedev (2, Russia) – Stefanos Tsitsipas (4, Greece), starting at 10:30
For the second time in a row these two excellent tennis players meet in the semi-finals in Australia. Last year Medvedev needed just three sets to beat the Greek and he hopes to return to the final in Melbourne and become the first open-tennis player to win a Grand Slam title right after his first win (at the United States Championship last year). This will be the ninth meeting between the two with Medvedev holding a 2: 6 advantage.
The Russian managed to come back from a two-set deficit in the quarter-finals against Felix Uja Eliasim, while Tsitsipas achieved a victory in three relaxed sets against Yannick Zinner in just over two hours. For the Greek this will be his fifth appearance in the Grand Slam semi-final and third in Australia, he has won only once (at Roland Garros last year). There was bad blood between the two in the past.